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One of the most common procedures we do in the emergency department is procedural sedation. One doctor does the primary procedure, one doctor pushes meds and watches airway. There are 5 common medications that I have seen used in the ED. We will cover these as well as the general approach today.

Patient satisfaction is getting lots of bad publicity these days, and I think it’s gone too far. Certainly, patient satisfaction surveys have the potential cause multiple adverse outcomes, and we’ve all heard about the study linking patient satisfaction with mortality. However, there are some aspects of patient satisfaction that are undeniably good patient care, and that is what I want to focus on today.

We’re taking a mental break this week and talking about Step 3. I took the test last month and found out a few weeks ago that I passed! And so in this episode we’ll be breaking down the details of test day, study strategy, and my overall thoughts about how it went. Step 3 is definitely not a test you want to blow off, but it’s also fairly easy to pass as long as you prepare appropriately.

It’s definitely not the most exciting topic in emergency medicine, but it’s easily one of the most important. Every single shift you will be required to manage a patient’s pain. In this episode, we will be covering the 6 major pain medicines that you need to know for your clerkship- including doses. Those medicines are PO acetaminophen, PO ibuprofen, PO hydrocodone-acetaminophen, IV/IM ketorolac, IV/IM morphine, and IV/IM hydromorphone.

Before we start clerkship season, we need to address the most important issue impacting emergency medicine: HALF of our physicians are experiencing burnout this year (Medscape). This is a huge problem. It leads to decreased speed, patient satisfaction, safety, and staff wellness. We have to learn to invest in our wellness now, or we will be statistically unlikely to achieve our full potential as physicians.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of doing something everyday to invest in either our mental, physical, or spiritual wellness. It allows us to defend ourselves against burnout and teach others to do the same, regardless of the environment or challenges we find ourselves in.

During your clerkship, you will rapidly develop a flow for your shift. What do you do when you first pick up a chart? How much do you let your patients ramble? After you evaluate your patient, do you sprint at full speed straight to your attending? What do you do AFTER your initial evaluation? It takes years to master this skill.

The first step is to develop a basic approach. Today, I’m going to give you MY approach to a patient encounter. From the moment that chart touches my hand to the moment that patient leaves the department. Feel free to adapt it however you want, but this is definitely a decent starting point.

We are going to discuss a very important topic today. How do you give a good patient presentation to your attending? This is the single most important skill you need to develop on your clerkship. Your presentations need to be FOCUSED, THOROUGH, and ORGANIZED. Don’t be nervous. There is a gold-standard presentation format that was published for all EM students by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. This is the format I highly recommend and will teach you in this episode. You just need to remember the 8 steps…

Today, I am very excited to announce that The Emergency Medicine Clerkship Podcast (and its affiliate website) are officially LAUNCHED!!!

Over the next several weeks, I plan on streamlining and simplifying the technical side of my publishing process. I anticipate that I will finish this soon, and that the podcast itself will be posting episodes at full speed early this summer.

I hope you enjoy the content. Please let me know if you have any feedback. I do plan on growing and adapting as I gain experience. With that said, if you have any constructive criticism or encouraging feedback, I would love to hear from you.